Good afternoon. Yesterday saw the latest attack in the war being waged by the economic nationalists in the ruling Frelimo party and their friends in the media, about control of the country’s natural resources. The academic, businessman and Frelimo politician José Chichava told student officers at the Higher Institute of Defence Studies that multinational companies extracting natural resources were robbing the country and taking advantage of the weakness of the state. He also, alarmingly, argued that “military generals, military specialists need to take part in the groups that discuss the contracts”, according to newssheet Mediafax. He also said in reference to the Coral South offshore gas platform that “they say that nobody can enter”, apparently implying that state authorities are being denied access. This is not true: officials have visited the platform, including to inspect employment contracts, and journalists have also visited, including from Zitamar News.
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Chichava is not one of the ordinary Mozambicans who is “becoming poorer”, as he put it, as a result of contracts with multinationals being allegedly mismanaged. He is a former government minister and a member of Frelimo’s Central Committee who owes his success in business to his political connections. When he and people like him argue that multinationals are stealing Mozambique’s wealth, what they really mean is that Frelimo elites should be allowed to steal it instead. A good example of this is the dispute over an early works contract for the liquefied natural gas project led by US oil company ExxonMobil. The state-owned Mozambican oil and gas firm ENH is demanding to participate in the contract, despite not having bid for it. Other Mozambican companies are reported to have been using their political connections to lobby for contracts. Such contracts are unlikely to bring much benefit for ordinary Mozambicans. They are an opportunity for elites to pocket money while outsourcing the hard work to foreign companies who have the necessary skills and capacity.
